Thursday, February 21, 2013

Donut (cookie) Party!!!

Whether you call them donuts or doughnuts or the extra inch on your waistline...donuts can't help but make you smile. Or, make ME smile, and I think we're kindred spirits here.

Let's talk donuts for a minute. When I was a kid, I could never understand when my mom said she "didn't like donuts." More precisely, she only ate cake donuts. She also fell asleep during Star Wars. Neither one of these things made any sense to me as a kid; now, I TOTALLY GET IT.

I would never, ever grab a glazed donut out of a box. Eww. They get slimy and squishy....but a CAKE donut? Oh baby. Sign me up. I don't care if it's plain, chocolate, blueberry, pumpkin, topped with coconut, sprinkled with nuts, frosted, or rolled in cinnamon sugar. I love me some cake donuts. My exception to this rule is the Shipley Do-Nuts Chocolate Frosting Filled. Yes, it's glazed, but it's filled with FROSTING!!! It's pretty much heaven on Earth.

Is this weird to be so particular about donuts? Well, here's something I think we all can agree on:DONUT COOKIES.

My uber-creative, beautiful friend Kami from over at No Biggie & I teamed up to bring you some cookies and some adorable little bag/box tags and flags to go with them for parties or for gift giving. How cute are they?!? (I love having creative & crafty friends!)

Here's an example of the little flags...you could used them on cookie donut holes or real donut holes:

Um, and how cute does that printable look on a pink bakery box?!? Can you imagine delivering this cuteness to your kid's school, or work, or to your neighbor?

The free printables are over on Kami's blog, No Biggie.
(While you're there, click around a bit...if you don't already know Kami, you're going to love her! Check out these printables she made to go with some little pie cookies at Thanksgiving! Squee!)

For the donut cookies, I used royal icing for the pink, but really wanted to make a chocolate icing for the chocolate donuts. If you've ever had chocolate royal icing, you'll know that it doesn't really taste, well, chocolatey. So, I made a dark chocolate glaze that sets up shiny and fairly hard, so it's great for packaging.

To make the donut cookies, you'll need:

circle sugar cookies with the center cut out using a smaller cutter or the back of an icing tip

Thin the pink icing with water, a bit at a time,
stirring with a silicone spatula, until it is the consistency of a
thick syrup. (Reserve some of the white icing for piping details
later.) You'll want to drop a "ribbon" of icing back into the bowl
and have it disappear in a count of "one thousand one, one thousand
two." Four is too thick, one is too thin. Count of 2-3 is good. Cover
with a damp dishcloth and let sit for several minutes.

Stir gently with a silicone spatula to pop and large air bubbles that have formed. Pour into a squeeze bottle.

Fill in the outlines with the thinned
icing, using a toothpick to guide to the edges and to pop large air
bubbles.

Scatter on the sprinkles.

Let the cookies dry, uncovered, 6-8 hours or overnight.

{If using the chocolate glaze, you don't have to be so fussy with the thinning. Make the glaze so that it is the consistency of glue. Pipe the outline, then fill with the same consistency glaze. It should all smooth out. Some may run down the inside of the cookie. That's ok.}Dark Chocolate Glaze

Whisk together the cocoa and powdered sugar. Add in the corn syrup and milk; whisk until smooth and the consistency of glue. Add more milk a little at a time, if needed. Use immediately.

The glaze will harden and be stackable in 12-24 hours.

Next up: Blueberry "Cake" Donut Hole Cookies. {This is more of an homage to blueberry cake donuts...they don't taste like the donut, but instead, a blueberry cookie. Look for the very tiny dried blueberries.}

I did donuts last year to remind Canadian's that it is Roll Up The Rim time at Tim Hortons. Such a cute and easy cookie. I love the printable! Thanks for all your inspiration. Giving away your book this week! Very extiting.

Oh my gosh - these are sooo cute! I am not good at cookie decorating or working with royal icing but I just might have to attempt this! My little guy would get such a crack out of it since he loves donuts. Thank you for the chocolate glaze recipe - I will be bookmarking that! And I have to admit my favorite donut flavor is chocolate frosted with sprinkles, like my son!

Oh, I SOOOOOOO love cake donuts...thank you for the affirmation! They used to be available everywhere when I was a kid....but now I live in the land of Krispy Kreme which doesn't do it for me...and there isn't a cake donut to be found. :-( I especially crave a good chocolate covered cake donut after eating something spicy. This is hard to think about with Spring Break only 5 weeks away. Sigh.

The donut cookie idea is SO adorable! I will have to try and make some this weekend! Could I use the "soft" sugar cookie recipe instead of the regular one? Will the royal icing and the glaze just run off? Both my husband and daughter prefer the softer cookie versus the other ones I use for decorating cookies.

I started preferring cake donuts/doughnuts about the time I had my first daughter. Original, chocolate glazed, blueberry, etc.- you name it, I like it! And it inspired me to buy a donut pan to make some at home. But I'll always have a spot for the chocolate eclairs. My husband will always prefer the original glazed and chocolate iced glazed at Shipley's. But I'll get him to come around someday. :-) My daughter is now 2 and a half and she loves donuts.

Star Wars...hmmm...I haven't seen that movie in a while. I think the last time I saw it was before having a kid. When do you get to watch the movies you want to watch again? All I get to watch now are Cars, Tangled, and more Cars. :-)

So enjoyed this post! The donut cookies are adorable and fun and the tags are really cute and corny.I make cake donuts for the first time while we are on vacation here in Florida and deep frying them was not the brightest thing to do, not the way I did it anyway. I really should have made donut cookies but until your post the idea never occurred to me. What a *dooh* nut I am. (bangs head on table)

I just did a doughnut birthday party for my oldest in January. She only wanted doughnuts. Her cake was a big pile of assorted doughuts. We had every kind of doughnut. And of course krispy kreme doughnuts. I was going to do cookies like the ones you made but inside I made sugar cookies in the shape of donuts and let the kids frost and decorate and take home. I did make doughnuts out of felt that looked like the ones you made. Took me forever!

Yes! Cake donuts all the way! I thought I was all alone in my love for the cake donut... I'm more particular than you though, it has to be a double chocolate cake donut! (Okay, so I'll take a regular cake donut in a pinch.) Thankfully everyone at my work prefers anything but cake donuts, so more for me!

Too cute for words, Bridget! I think I'll make all of my shortbread and sugar cookies into glazed doughnut cookies, LOL! Love all the colorful goodie wrap packaging and the food photogaphy is outstanding, my friend! xo